Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) is a term that covers all the interpersonal associations people engage in to modify the emotional state of either self or others. Although the importance of utilizing others in the ER process is not new, comprehensive IER models have not been introduced until recently. The models focus on different aspects of IER with some focusing on the attempts at increasing positive or negative emotions experienced by others, while others focus on the IER strategies, leading to the development of differing ideas on the functions and consequences of IER processes, especially regarding their implications in mental health. Many therapeutic approaches involve the therapist's regulation of the client's emotions using different methods, which indicates that IER processes are also involved in the treatment of mental health problems. The chapter aims to clarify the role of IER in mental health, with a focus on the specific topics that require further research, in addition to the examination of the therapeutic work from an IER perspective.
TopIntroduction
Emotion regulation (ER) has a very important role in the daily lives of human beings, predicting the life outcomes in various domains such as mental (Berking et al., 2014; Wirtz et al., 2014), interpersonal (Bloch et al., 2014) and physical (Denollet et al., 2008; Song et al., 2015) wellbeing. Most of the published theoretical and empirical work focused on only the intrapersonal aspects of emotion regulation such as cognitive and behavioral strategies employed to modify the intensity, duration, or type of emotion (Hofmann, 2014). However, human beings do not just utilize cognitive or behavioral strategies to deal with their emotions but also the presence or support of others starting from the earliest years of their lives. Despite its importance in daily life, the interpersonal aspect of ER received limited empirical attention, and the existing research mainly dates back to the last 10 years. Thus, still, there is little information on the implications of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) use on general well-being and mental health outcomes.
Interpersonal emotion regulation is also considered an essential part of the psychotherapy relationship that presents itself through the approach and assistance of the therapist to the client, especially with difficult emotions (Prochaska & Norcross, 2018). Although the ER agent role of the therapist had been present in various psychotherapy approaches since the beginning of the talk therapy tradition, limited research has been conducted on specific strategies employed by the therapists in the therapy setting. Thus, the present chapter will focus on the role of the IER processes in two different but related domains, with the first one being the contribution of individual IER strategies to mental health, followed by the IER-related strategies used in psychotherapy relationships. The first part will explore a) the recently emerging models on interpersonal ER (IER), b) how they relate to psychopathology, c) the contribution of other ER-related characteristics to the association between interpersonal ER strategies and psychopathology and d) clinical implications of IER. The emphasis of the second part will be on the unique IER methods employed by the therapists in the therapy room in chronological order, as well as the implications of the therapists' utilization of the self as ER agent on the clients’ response to treatment.